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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Fabrication Process of Silicone-based Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
Published on: February 1, 2016
PZT thin film actuated elastic fin micromotor
1Lab. de Ceramique, Fed. Inst. of Technol., Lausanne, Switzerland. dubois@lc.dmx.epfl.ch
Abstract:
A piezoelectric elastic fin micromotor based on a PbZr(0.53 )Ti(0.47)O(3) thin film driving a micromachined silicon membrane was fabricated and studied. The stator was characterized by interferometry, and a laser set-up was used to measure the angular velocity and acceleration of the motor. The torque, the output power, and the efficiency of the device were extracted from these measurements. Values up to 1020 rpm and 0.94 microNm were observed for the velocity and the torque, respectively, which would be sufficient for a wristwatch application. The present version exhibited an efficiency of 0.17%, which could theoretically be increased to 4.8%
